Childcare while job hunting, what worked? (update)

My hours will change when I find a job and childcare is my biggest worry. I have read a lot of threads here and could not find my exact situation. I am willing to trade favours. What worked for you?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 11 months ago, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

Libraries and community centres run free activities that gave me a couple of hours.